GuidelineReviews of guideline.com

They increased our monthly fee by over 150% in July. Their website states that there is no plan termination fee for employers with their new pricing structure. However, a customer service rep has just told us that Guideline charges a $250 fee to terminate our plan. Who is right? It also takes them up to 90 days to close an account and transfer the assets and, of course, they keep charging the monthly fee until the plan fully transfers the assets. Guideline, of course, says that their revamped pricing plan structure is better for their clients. This is not true for most of them, particularly for very small businesses with 1-9 employees. Guideline used to be the cheapest solution for very small businesses. Not anymore. They are now among the most expensive ones. Having been a Guideline client for almost 4 years, I can't recommend them. We are leaving them. Update: We terminated our plan on 11/30/2022. Only 2 people were enrolled when we terminated it. Their account balance was transferred immediately. Yet, 3 months later, Guideline is still billing us. Why? Because, as they say, it may take up to 90 days to complete the termination process. The truth is, even if your situation is very simple (1 or 2 employees, immediate $$$ transfer), Guideline will take its time to terminate your plan so that it can keep charging you its monthly management fee. I find this unethical.

Bait and switch! Increased participant management fee from 0% to 0.08%. Doesn't sound like much but triples the cost of low expense ratio index funds. They got rid of some other participant fees, like the rollover, but at the cost of eating returns.

Worst 401k provider with worst customer service. They abruptly increased fee. We decided to move our 401k to different provider. They are taking forever to respond and yes we have to keep paying them monthly fees at their new increased fee plan due to their intentional delays.

They had a teaser fee to get us in and then increased their monthly fee from $35 to $79 a month. We decided to move to 401go.com. They told me there would be no closing plan cost for the transfer and then asked me to sign a document with $250 "plan wind down fee". Terrible greedy company.

Guideline recently increased their fees... again. This time adding an obnoxious monthly flat fee as well as AUM fees that they were sooooo against previously. As a result, my company's 401k fees are increasing by 82.5% per year. Bait and switch is built into this company's DNA. Buyer beware.

If you need any answers from them, forget about it you will spend your days trying to get a response (by email or phone). that is in addition to their lack of knowledge which might lead to state penalties.

They are not a low cost option if you need to use all of your team's time tracking them down for answers. They never answer their phone or emails, they do not provide basic reports such as compliance testing results, email communication, not even loans! (which are not visible on the plan sponsor website). I though Principle was the worst bunch of inexperienced yahoos until Guideline lowered the bar. I honestly don't know how they stay out of jail much less in business.

"You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!" Had to shut down my company so shut down the 401k w/Guideline. They said it'd take 90 days to shutdown...here we are on now entering month 5 and it isn't shutdown. They continue to bill me. They don't respond to service requests. I wouldn't sign up with them again.